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Friday, February 26, 2016

While some of the country is freezing, we're having an early spring
in Seattle. Yesterday I head someone mowing the lawn. Soon the cherry
trees on the University of Washington campus will be in bloom. Which
reminds me...

I was once 1
of 35,000 students there. Inside every chest, a small pump expanded and contracted 100,000
times a day without a thought. These fleshy little
drivers kept us all going, even during sleep, whether in class or in bed.

Every
professor's brain contained more cells than stars in the known
universe. The electrochemical communication that flowed among 100
billion neurons allowed each instructor to do his or her work. Whether
atheist, agnostic, or believer, each professor and student was continuously held together by the
sustaining power of Christ's word (Heb. 1:1-3). He gave us all
breath, 14,000 times a day. (Acts 17:25)

Christ sustained us
all, both teacher and student, whether knowingly or not, quarter after
quarter (Col. 1:16-17). God owned us, too. All of us. "The earth is the Lord's, and all it contains. The world, and those who dwell therein." Psalm 24:1. All around me, I saw walking miracles, created in the likeness and image of God (Gen. 1:26-27).

What was secular about all this? Nothing.

Evergreen
trees and rhododendrons were everywhere. And the buildings! Were they
human creations? Yes. Designed and constructed by image-bearers of God
who could only produce such beautiful "secondary creations" because they were made in the image of the first Creator. Christ was holding those buildings together. He made and sustained the raw materials.

I have
never seen a secular building in my life. Some ugly ones, yes, because we
live in a fallen world where people can do hideous things with God's
stuff. But I've never seen a secular brick. It's all God's stuff.

I
spent about six years at the University, earning two bachelor's
degrees. One in music, and the other in German language and literature.
Neither subject was a secular subject. Why? Because God created and
sustains sound waves, and without this, neither music nor language can
exist. God gives humans the amazing
ability to think abstractly, speak and write language and song, though fallen souls distort them both.

There
is no secular subject at the University of Washington, although there is plenty of distortion going on. If
it has anything to do with time, space, or matter, it's all God's stuff.

The
best thing that happened during my time at the University of Washington
was meeting a remarkable walking miracle by the name of Kathy
Marie Carlson, whose name was changed to Overman. This brilliant woman earned her Mrs. degree in just two years!
This photo was taken on the U.W. campus, under the blooming cherry trees, about four months before we
tied the knot, 45 years ago.

8 comments:

Sweet! Glad God lead you together. Yes, God's evidences are so clear on the University of Washington campus. This is where I found Jesus as my personal Savior through the ministry of the Navigators some 46 years ago. Amen to His remarkable ways.

Christian, it was probably 60 years ago, while driving a John Deer "B" tractor on our farm, that the same realization hit me. As I listened to the staccato explosions within the two cylinders of that machine, a question came to mind: "What kept that engine from breaking into million pieces?" And answer came quickly. Those cylinders and pistons remained intact because Jesus Christ was “ . . . sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Heb. 1:3)."